On Wed, 6 Apr 2016 22:36:50 +0200 Mattias Andrée <[email protected]> wrote:
> On Wed, 6 Apr 2016 16:23:23 -0400 > Michael Stone <[email protected]> wrote: > > > On Wed, Apr 06, 2016 at 10:10:26PM +0200, Mattias Andrée > > wrote: > > >We have now demonstrated that attempts to > > >implement this functionally in shell script > > >without -E is prone to errors in addition > > >to being messy. > > > > Just wondering, what's the use case? > > > > Mike Stone > > > > I just don't want a separate tool for it, > and I especially do not want to see something > like the suggested exists command for this — > that is some harmful shit — but it could be I thought I would elaborate on why the suggested exists(1) is harmful. People will run something like `exists -- "$1/*"` and not consider that $1 may contain wildcards and * does not catch hidden files, or if it does it will not use the same syntax as sh. > useful on some more advanced shell scripts — > you know how some people write entire programs > in Bash, you do sometimes have to make this > test in actual programs, such as diff and shred > — and it is nice for completeness, just like > there is flag for every file type including > FIFO:s, sockets and even terminals.
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